The banks in the Thiruvananthapuram district have been asked to organise a Lok Adalat to expedite the disposal of petitions that were received at the Chief Minister’s mass contact programme.
Inaugurating the second quarterly District-Level Review Committee (DLRC) meeting on banking for the current fiscal here on Monday, Sub Collector S. Karthikeyan said such platforms would serve to provide concessions on loans for the petitioners who had requested assistance in this regard.
There were around 900 petitions for loan settlements that have been received by the district administration.
The government was mulling over a proposal to shoulder a certain portion of the loan amounts with the respective banks so as to reduce the financial woes of those hailing from financially disadvantaged backgrounds, he added.
Mr. Karthikeyan also reiterated the demand to adopt a liberal stance while entertaining applications for educational loan and urged the banks to ensure quick disposal of such cases.
The meeting expressed concern over the marked fall in Credit-Deposit ratio in the district to 62.8 per cent from 65 per cent in March, 2015. As per the banking statistics that were released at the meeting, the total deposits in the banks stood at Rs.54,042 crore, while the total advances stood at Rs.33,956 crore as on June 30.
Under the annual credit plan for the district, the banks have disbursed a total of Rs.1,092 crore as on June 30 under the three major priority sectors.
According to the statistics, the disbursement of advances to the agriculture sector fell from 31 per cent to 19 per cent after March 2015. The decrease is attributed to the drastic reduction in credit outflow of gold loans for agricultural purposes owing to strict enforcement to relevant guidelines for the interest subvention scheme.
Reserve Bank of India Assistant General Manager (AGM) V. Raveendran, NABARD AGM Sandhya Nagesh, DLRC convener N. Sai Prasad, and Lead District Manager K.N. Balakumaran were among those who addressed the gathering.
Officials of various banks, government departments and agencies participated in the deliberations.
A detailed review on developmental schemes such as Pradhan Manthri Jan Dhan Yojana and Kerala Self Employment Scheme for the Registered Unemployed (KESRU), and the credit flow to priority sectors including agriculture was held on the occasion.
The meeting was convened by Indian Overseas Bank, which is the Lead District Bank.
